You’re the Worst Review: It’s Been, Part 1 and 2 (Season 4 Episode 1 and 2)

You’re the Worst Season 4 Episodes 1 and 2, “It’s Been,” spend their entirety doing something bold and admirable: showing the two leads in very literally different places in life.

“It’s Been, Part One” picks up three months after Jimmy (Chris Geere) abandoned Gretchen (Aya Cash) on a hill directly after proposing marriage to her. In that time, he has fled Los Angeles and rented a trailer in a quaint and remote retirement home.

This is not the pretentious Jimmy of old. He’s disconnected himself from any kind of technology more advanced than a DVD player, which he uses to watch The Fall Guy with his neighbor Bert (played by Justified‘s Raymond J. Barry).

Getting away from Gretchen — or perhaps L.A. at large — seems to have dulled the sharper elements of Jimmy that proved slightly self-destructive or alienating in the past.

Wherein “It’s Been” Jimmy gently sidesteps the advances of the woman working at the karaoke bar he apparently frequents and offers to give her more book recommendations, L.A. Jimmy would have not only dove headfirst into any possible sign of companionship, but also gone into a lengthy diatribe on literature.

This Jimmy doesn’t feel the chronic need to put someone down at every possible instance. That’s not to say that he doesn’t, but – to quote Toby from The West Wing – he’s listening to some of his “better angels.”

He may not always succeed in “It’s Been,” but he’s giving being a good person without Gretchen a solid shot. This shows how far he’s come in the series.

Yes, he enables Bert’s dangerous driving by telling him where his keys have been hidden with a  deflecting retort — in a succinctly Jimmy way — but the effort is there. The seeds for a better way have been planted for Jimmy as he inevitably makes his way back to L.A. and Gretchen.

The coup de grace for Jimmy’s exiled living in “It’s Been” comes in the form of a copy of his book lying in front of his trailer. He can’t ignore everything anymore. He finally picks up his phone, blows the dust off — a nice aesthetic touch — and turns it back on.

Predictably, the alerts come like a flood and we can see on his face everything that Jimmy has been trying to avoid. It is a truly affecting scene as the camera pans on Geere’s face. He’s spent three months trying to ignore the fact that he left Gretchen and that L.A. life behind, but you can’t repress feelings forever.

Of the two parts, “It’s Been, Part 1” is more thoughtful and introspective and uses Geere and Barry to great effect.

“Part two,” however, is a zany, manic examination of the ways that Jimmy’s actions have impacted everyone around him. Specifically Gretchen.

In the three months following their break-up, Gretchen has become mildly agoraphobic out of fear of seeing Jimmy again and, as a result, has driven herself a bit mad. She recreationally smokes crack and now squats in Lindsey’s (Kether Donohue) apartment.

Adulation have to be sent Cash’s way for finding new depths of damage in an already broken character. It’s fascinating watching the ways her character spirals down in newfound fashions.

What really makes this back half of the episode work is the decision to view all this devastation wrought by Jimmy through the lens of Lindsey.

In a character that has so often been just as unhealthy as Gretchen currently is, we witness Lindsey’s growth as a more grounded individual which lends itself remarkably well in every scene with Gretchen, allowing Donahue to be a very good straight man.

Lindsey’s turn as a more serious character translates directly to the type of show that You’re the Worst is pivoting, at least in “It’s Been,” towards: a more mature story of growth and inner acceptance (while maintaining its sharp edge and witty nature).

“It’s Been” gives us two characters who are so afraid of interacting with their emotions (in Jimmy’s case, feelings of guilt) that avoidance is the more preferable alternative. For Jimmy, that means running away; for Gretchen, it means dulling her senses in the form of crack and singing Barenaked Ladies’ “One Week” if her pain is brought up at an inconvenient moment.

Is this kind of episode sustainable throughout this fourth season? The next episode will say a lot about that and where the series plans on going. Even if it isn’t, this will still be one of the finest episodes the series has churned out to this point.

What did you think of this episode of You’re the Worst? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

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You’re the Worst airs Wednesdays at 10/9c on FXX.

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